JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team swept a doubleheader against Pitt-Johnstown on the road at Point Stadium Friday and
Tyler Walters broke the program's career home run record in the process.
The sweep stretches The Rock's winning streak to seven games while improving its overall record to 15-7 and its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division mark to 8-2. Pitt-Johnstown dropped to 6-16 overall and 3-6 in the PSAC West with the losses.
Walters entered Friday tied with Slippery Rock Hall of Fame inductee Nate Thimons for first place in program history with 40 career home runs. In the fifth inning of game one Walters hit a three-run homer to left field to become The Rock's new home run king.
Walters, who has five home runs on the season, is now four dingers away from tying Shippensburg's Jake Kennedy (2014-17) for the most home runs in PSAC history.
Others having big days for The Rock on Friday were
Christian Porterfield,
Abraham Mow and
Wyatt Daugherty.
Porterfield went a combined 4-for-8 over the doubleheader with three runs scored, four RBI, two doubles and one home run. He now leads SRU on the year in home runs (six), RBI (27) and batting average (.390).
Mow was 4-for-6 from his spot atop The Rock's batting order with four runs scored, three RBI, one home run and a pair of walks. The freshman has now hit four home runs this season.
Daugherty came out of Slippery Rock's bullpen to record saves in both games. His five saves in 2018 are the most by any pitcher in the PSAC.
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 9 – Pitt-Johnstown 7
The Rock's prolific offense was once again on full display in its 9-7 victory in game one. Slippery Rock accounted for 10 hits, five of which went for extra bases, in what was its 10th game of the year with at least eight runs.
Walters led the way in the opener by going 3-for-3 with three runs scored, three RBI a walk and a historic home run. Mow was 2-for-3 with a home run, three runs scored and a pair of RBI.
Porterfield belted a pair of doubles to drive two runs in while
Joe Campagna also had a multi-RBI outing.
Luca Fuscardo and
Kyle Wise totaled The Rock's other two hits with Fuscardo's coming by way of a double and Wise's being his team-best third triple of the year.
For the second time in the last three games, Mow led off Friday's opener with a solo home run to give The Rock an early lead, but the Mountain Cats would answer back with three runs over the following three innings to take a 3-1 advantage heading into the middle portion of the game.
Slippery Rock rallied back with a pair of runs in the fourth inning to even the score at 3-3 thanks to back-to-back run-scoring hits from Porterfield and Campagna.
SRU pushed past UPJ, 4-3, in the fifth inning when Wise produced a one-out triple before scoring via an RBI-single by Mow. Following Mow's single,
Mitchell Wood reached base via a fielding error to give Walters runners on first and third. The senior slugger proceeded to send a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence to further The Rock's lead and set a new program record.
The Mountain Cats cut into SRU's 7-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Jack Shirk tripled with Dan Clark on first for a UPJ run. Scott Thompson then drew a walk to give UPJ runners on first and third with one out, forcing starting pitcher
Alex Pantuso from the game for
Tanner Stanzz, who got out of the frame after surrendering a sacrifice fly to Mason Pickett that trimmed SRU's lead to 7-5 going into the sixth inning where Pitt-Johnstown scored another run to make it a 7-6 contest.
However, Slippery Rock added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh thanks to an RBI-double by Porterfield and a sacrifice fly off Campagna's bat to make it 9-6. Daugherty allowed one run in the bottom of the frame, but stranded Mountain Cats on first and second to finish off the game and give The Rock a 9-7 win.
Pantuso improved to 3-2 on the year after striking out seven batters while giving up five runs on six hits and four walks in four innings. Stanz pitched two innings, scattering one run to go with four strikeouts.
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 7 – Pitt-Johnstown 4
SRU combined a late offensive outburst with a great performance on the mound by starting pitcher
Matt Gordon to claim a 7-4 win against the Mountain Cats in game two.
Gordon improved to 4-0 on the year after going 6.1 innings, scattering four runs on eight hits while striking out six and once again not surrendering a walk. Gordon has walked a region-low one batter this season. He allowed only two runs over the first six innings before UPJ tallied two runs in the seventh which led to Daugherty coming in to record the game's final two outs and register his second save of the day.
Porterfield finished off his big day with another quality game in the nightcap, going 2-for-4 with two runs, one home run and two RBI. Mow and Fuscardo also turned in two-hit outings with Fuscardo driving in two runs and Mow bringing in one.
Slippery Rock once again struck first in game two as Porterfield put The Rock ahead 2-0 when he blasted a two-run homer to left field in the third inning. SRU added to its lead in the fourth as
Frankie Jezioro singled to lead off the inning then stole second setting up a run-scoring single by Mow.
After three inning of shutout baseball, UPJ was finally able to get to Gordon for a pair of runs in the fourth, but Gordon rebounded by throwing two straight shutout innings and The Rock's explosive offense tacked on four more runs in the seventh to negate a two-run final inning by UPJ en route to an eventual 7-4 victory.
Slippery Rock and Pitt-Johsntown will conclude its four-game series Sunday with another doubleheader at Point Stadium. First pitch of game one is set for 1 p.m.
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